Pro Bono Projects

Appellate Advocates' Parole Advocacy Project

The Parole Advocacy Project partners student volunteers with people incarcerated across New York State as they prepare to go before the parole board. Volunteers support applicants in preparing for parole interviews, preparing a packet to provide to the parole board, and in getting access to resources while they are incarcerated and if they are granted release. There are also opportunities to support clients seeking clemency. We work in partnership with Appellate Advocates lawyers, paralegals, social workers and re-entry specialists.

Asylum Relief Project – Winter or Spring Break

BLS students partner with a nonprofit organization over winter and/or spring break to provide legal support to recently arrived migrants seeking asylum in the US. In prior years, students worked at Al Otro Lado’s legal clinic in Tijuana, Mexico and remotely. In 2023, students worked with the Central American Refugee Center assisting with client intake, preparing individuals for credible fear interviews, drafting affidavits, petitioning for humanitarian parole, and advocating to protect due process rights. In 2024, they assisted attorneys at Catholic Charities in NYC and Central American Refugee Center in Long Island.

Brooklyn Law Alternative Spring Break Trip

BLAST is an excellent opportunity for BLS students to spend their spring break working with legal services and other public interest organizations across the United States. Students work in teams and with seasoned attorneys to provide much-needed legal assistance during the one-week period. In previous years, students worked at the Miami-Dade County Public Defender’s Office, Bread & Roses Legal Center in Denver, Louisiana Civil Justice Center in New Orleans, Miami Community Justice Project, Catholic Charities of Atlanta, Georgia Legal Services in Atlanta and Savannah, and Gideon’s Promise in Atlanta.

Courtroom Advocates Project

Students advocate for survivors of domestic violence seeking civil orders of protection in New York City family courts. Primarily, students work with survivors to draft and file petitions. Students may also have the opportunity to advocate for the petitioner before the family court judge.

Center for Urban Business Entrepreneurship (CUBE) Consultation Center

The CCC is a pro bono project sponsored by Brooklyn Law School’s Center for Urban Business Entrepreneurship (CUBE). It offers students valuable practice experience and the opportunity to interact with local entrepreneurs in Brooklyn’s dynamic business community. Participating students work under the supervision of corporate law alumni (from Stroock & Stroock & Lavan, Nixon Peabody, White and Case, Davis Polk, Cleary Gottlieb, and Goodwin Procter) and faculty, and alongside community partners and incubators including NYC Business Solutions, the Brooklyn Innovators Center and the Brooklyn Public Library. Consultations tend to focus on providing small business owners and start-ups with essential legal services and resources. During the consultations, students hear directly from the client as they work alongside supervising attorneys to issue spot and assess their legal needs and provide them with valuable information and advice related to contracts, entity formation, leases, intellectual property, tax and other issues.

Foreclosure Legal Assistance Group

FLAG is a partnership among Brooklyn Law School students, the BLS Public Service
Law Center, Access Justice Brooklyn, and Kings County Supreme Court. FLAG’s mission is to assist homeowners in Kings County facing foreclosure. FLAG provides homeowners entangled in foreclosure litigation with information about New York’s unique foreclosure process. It offers students an opportunity to provide meaningful assistance to members of our community, learn about foreclosure law, attend foreclosure settlement conferences, and gain direct exposure to the mandatory foreclosure litigation process, sharpening essential interpersonal skills through hands-on experience.

If/When/How - Abortion Clinic Legal Observing

If/When/How is a student-driven national nonprofit network of law students and lawyers committed to fostering the next wave of legal experts for the reproductive justice movement. If/When/How works to transform the law and policy landscape through advocacy, support, and organizing so all people have the power to determine if, when, and how to define, create, and sustain families with dignity and to actualize sexual and reproductive wellbeing on their own terms. Through our clinic escorting project, students have the chance to support and help people seeking abortions safely enter a Bronx abortion clinic despite protestor presence.

Immigrant Youth Assistance Project

Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS) is a form of humanitarian immigration status available for immigrant children under the age of twenty-one, who cannot be reunified with one or both of their parents due to abuse, abandonment, and/ or neglect, and it is not in their best interest to return to their home countries. The Immigrant Youth Assistance Project (IYAP) provides students with the opportunity to interview clients and potential guardians, draft guardianship petitions, affidavits, and motions, as well as prepare clients for hearings before the New York Family Court. Upon completion of the Family Court piece of the SIJS process, immigrant youth are then eligible to apply for SIJS before United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).

Law Student for a Day

For over a decade, Brooklyn Law School has partnered with high schools to bring students from diverse communities into the law school through the Law Student for a Day program. During this program, high school students shadow law students to learn about the law school experience and increase the accessibility of the legal profession. This program provides students from underserved communities exposure to the law school, legal profession, and higher education. The goal is to empower students who may have never met a lawyer or don’t have any positive associations with the legal profession.

Motivating Youth Through Legal Education

Do you want a head start in constitutional law? Updates on the current SCOTUS docket? Networking opportunities with NYC attorneys and judges? BLS Public Service Award pro bono hours? MYLE is an underrated experience for law students. How does it work? First, you join MYLE as a debate coach. Next, Legal Outreach pairs you with a high school student who has already taken extracurricular courses on constitutional law, criminal law, and criminal procedure. Then, you help with their legal and public speaking skills. Finally, you judge the debate, which is usually based on a case currently on SCOTUS’s docket. Completion of constitutional law is not a prerequisite!

National Lawyers Guild: Legal Observation at Protests

The Legal Observer program is part of the comprehensive legal support coordinated by NLG’s Mass Defense Committee designed to ensure that people can express their political views without unconstitutional disruption or interference by the government. Legal Observers work with NLG attorneys who represent individual activists and political organizations and play a distinct role from that of participants at demonstrations and protests. They are trained to promote police accountability by witnessing and documenting arrests, abuse, or civil rights violations. The presence of Legal Observers helps discourage police abuse, and the information collected by Legal Observers is used in all stages of defending arrestees and in lawsuits against the police or other government agencies when a person’s rights are violated.

Petey Greene Program

Since 2008, PGP has been supporting the academic goals of incarcerated and formally incarcerated students through high quality volunteer tutoring, while educating volunteers on the injustice manifest in our carceral system.

Puerto Rico Legal Brigade

Following Hurricane Maria, student-led BLS brigades have traveled to Puerto Rico to assist El Colegio de Abogados y Abogadas de Puerto Rico or the Bar Association of Puerto Rico. In past years, BLS students also assisted locals with legal issues ranging from preparing forms required by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) to help survivors prove ownership of damaged property, to assisting lawyers with client intakes and client interviews and even attending courts proceedings. This year, students hope to travel to Puerto Rico to provide pro bono legal assistance.

Schools Consent Project (SCP)

SCP volunteers will assist in delivering lawyer-led school workshops designed to educate young students in NYC on the legal definition of consent, the age of consent, key sexual offenses, online harms, and how to recognize and communicate personal boundaries. The aim is to equip students with the legal knowledge and confidence to identify harmful behaviors, respect others, and encourage them to seek help from the justice system when needed. Volunteers will undergo a background check and receive full training.

Small Claims with Sanctuary (SCS)

Sanctuary for Families’ (“SFFNY”) “Small Claims with Sanctuary” (“SCS”) Pilot Program aims to train student volunteers to assist clients through the process of obtaining financial relief through the Small Claims Court system. SFFNY is a non-profit organization that provides free services to survivors of intimate partner violence. Many survivors are unable to obtain adequate relief through state resources. SCS will provide clients with another avenue to obtain financial support and reparations to aid in their process of healing and restoration.

Suspension Representation Project

SRP is an incredible way to increase your advocacy skills while having a tangible impact on the students of New York City. Public school students who receive long- term suspensions are entitled to an advocate during their suspension process. SRP’s goal is to advocate for students to keep them in school and on a path to graduation – avoiding the pervasive “school-to-prison pipeline”. SRP is a consortium of student organizations from five NYC law schools – each dedicated to protecting young people’s educational rights. In many cases, the student’s only chance at having a voice is through SRP’s advocates. The club provides advocates with comprehensive training on interviewing and counseling, hearing procedures, direct and cross examination techniques, and developing a “theory of the case” so that they can effectively represent students and their families in front of hearing officers. New advocates are paired with experienced ones and can turn to the BLS SRP Executive Board for support and guidance at any time.

Taxi Workers Defense Collective

The Taxi Workers Defense Collective provides student representation to taxi and ride-share drivers accused of violations of New York City’s traffic laws. Drivers are summoned to adversarial proceedings conducted by the New York City Office of Administrative Trials & Hearings, where their cases are prosecuted by attorneys at the Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC). As a result of these hearings, drivers in New York, hailing almost exclusively from low-income immigrant communities, are often issued predatory fines and penalties without any advocate by their side. Student volunteers fill that gap, representing drivers throughout the lifecycle of their case and handling intake, settlement negotiations, and oral argument. Law students have the opportunity to advocate for clients at TLC hearings, represent one of New York’s most exploited workforces, and fight for economic justice throughout the city.

Uncontested Divorce Project

Sanctuary for Families serves domestic violence and trafficking victim-survivors from diverse backgrounds who are seeking a life free from abuse and exploitation. The contribution of law students participating in the UDP Project enhances Sanctuary for Families’ capacity to meet the overwhelming demand for help. Divorcing an abusive spouse can be one of the most liberating moments for a victim-survivor of domestic violence. For many, divorce allows them to reclaim their pre-abuse identity and empowers them by cutting off any remaining ties to their abusive past. In some cases, it also offers victim-survivors a chance at obtaining much-needed financial relief through the distribution of martial assets and/or maintenance. Access Justice Brooklyn assists low-income individuals of all genders seeking uncontested divorces in any circumstances.

Unemployment Action Center

Every year, New Yorkers lose their jobs unexpectedly and sometimes unfairly. For many, unemployment insurance is the only way they can meet their needs and provide for their families. UAC advocates represent unemployed workers in hearings before administrative law judges and get to do everything lawyers do: interview and advise clients, interview and cross-examine witnesses, and deliver arguments. UAC not only provides a vital service to workers but also offers students meaningful experience in advocacy.

The Public Service Law Center is a resource for Brooklyn Law School students. Please note that our pro bono projects are connected with clients through their nonprofit partners and not through our office, and we do not have the ability to respond to requests for legal assistance at the phone number or email below.

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